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“I didn't want to take them with me,” Watkins said. “I didn't want them people to think I am stealing anything. (The store clerk) said ‘Yes, they can stay.’”

Watkins said she left her sons in the store for 30-45 minutes. A Casey’s employee who spoke with KCCI in June gave a different time frame.

“She'd already been gone almost two hours and who knows if it would have been longer,” Ashley Defenbaugh told KCCI June 24.

Defenbaugh reconfirmed the time frame off-camera Monday.

The Hy-Vee Watkins was looking for was just blocks away from the gas station. Watkins said she could not get there sooner because the OnStar feature in her car led her off course.

“They gave me the wrong directions to Hy-Vee, so they sent me off 15 miles from where I was supposed to go,” Watkins said.

Watkins said she cannot understand the charges and her arrest.

“I really can’t, because my son is 11. He will be 12 on Friday,” Watkins said. “My kids are very mature, and in the state of Iowa, your kids can go outside, correct? So that means I didn't put the kids in danger.”

Watkins said she was unable to call Casey’s to check in because she did not have her phone.

“My daughter had my phone and she was looking for my ID so we could get our money,” Watkins said.

KCCI interviewed Watkins from the Greene County Jail because she was arrested for failure to appear on the child endangerment charges. Watkins said she missed her court appearance because she was in the hospital in Davenport.